Whether trying to flesh out a character as part of a bigger drama production/project or simply trying to bring some realism and naturalness to a character in a class role play, there are exercises students can do that have a dual purpose: firstly, they will encourage students to draw on their own life experiences and people they know or have met and to be creative and experiment with different ways of delivering lines, altering posture and body language, walking and playing a character with different statuses (see Status) etc. Secondly, they are excellent and meaningful language exercises in themselves, particularly in the pre- and follow-up discussions. Essentially, they illustrate how people behave, interact and communicate in real-world situations.
Some of the exercises allow us to explore and develop characters whose lives we only see a small part of on stage ie. we develop a character's pre-curtain history. In the context of staging a drama production with students, they provide enormous scope for improvising scenes in and outside the play and they generate discussion of characters’ thoughts, words and actions which can be related to students' own real-life experiences and observations of others. I have also done these and similar activities based on characters students have read about in a newspaper article, reader, coursebook text etc. They are far more interesting and fun ways of checking comprehension than the usual True/False (students have to justify their decisions)! Here are some examples:
Hotseating: Everyone is seated, with one learner (in character) out the front or with larger classes, this can be done in smaller groups. The student out front must stay in character all the time as the others fire questions at him/her. They could be questions to do with the play itself or about the character’s life outside the play. The learner in character must answer every question even if it’s something s/he hasn’t prepared for – improvise and make it up! This is a demanding exercise in developing spontaneity.
Questions might include: Where were you born? What’s your favourite kind of music? Where and when were you happiest? What kind of childhood did you have? What really makes you angry? What do you really think of X (other character in the play)? What do you most like about yourself? Who or what is the greatest love of your life? Do you enjoy your job? What is your main ambition in life?
Quick Interviews (inspired by the idea of Speed Dating): For this exercise, the students being interviewed must remain in character throughout.
1. Individually, students write the same four questions to ask every other character in the play. By imposing such a limitation, it should encourage them to think up more interesting questions. They should be general questions and should not relate to any specific event in the (role)play. Questions such as: “What is your favourite film”; “What kind of childhood did you have” and “What is your idea of a perfect holiday” work well. Tell learners to avoid factual questions like: “Where do you live” and “How many brothers and sisters do you have”?
2. Divide your group into two. Half are interviewers, the other half are interviewees. Pair interviewers and interviewees up and tell the interviewers they have three minutes (be very strict with the time) to ask their questions. Interviewees must stay in character throughout. Encourage the characters to elaborate on their answers as much as possible and to remain in character all the time. After three minutes, call ‘time up’ and ask interviewers to find another interviewee. They ask their new partner the same questions. This is repeated until everyone has been interviewed. If you have an odd number, two interviewers can interview one person.
3. The whole exercise can be repeated with interviewers becoming interviewees and vice versa.
4. Round the exercise up with an informal vote as to who: the kindest/selfish/most interesting/boring person was. You could also vote on which character they would most/least like to date/have as a friend/a teacher/a parent etc.
Out The Bag:
1. Put learners into groups of three or four and ask them to choose just one of the characters from the play you are rehearsing or a text you've just read. Different groups can choose different characters. Ask them to think of a bag this character might typically use, e.g a doctor would probably take a briefcase to work; a secretary might have a handbag etc. Then as quickly as possible, ask each group to jot down on a piece of paper a list of contents their chosen bag might contain e.g in a doctor’s bag: mobile phone, stethoscope, pen, diary.
2. Take the list of objects from them and allot one object per student and tell them they are to imagine they actually are this object and they are all together in their respective bags in different parts of the room. Get the exercise going by telling them to simply chat about anything they wish: the owner of the bag and the way they are treated by him/her, the weather - anything! Go around each group and call out an object from each bag e.g mobile phone. The mobile phone leaves the group imagining it has been removed by the owner during which time the others in the bag continue chatting, perhaps speculating why the phone has been taken out. After about a minute, send the phone back in and s/he has to recount to the others what has just happened e.g “You’ll never guess what. He’s just had a terrible argument with his wife” etc. Continue the exercise until all objects have had a turn being taken out.
Keep the pace of the exercise brisk and don’t force students to improvise for too long.
It's the way I walk: People who are inexperienced in acting or making presentations are often unaware of the distracting effect shuffling their feet, standing with their hands in their pockets or playing with their hands can have on an audience so exercises such as this can help students feel more relaxed and comfortable and less self-conscious when standing up in front of others. The objective is not to change the learners’ own way of walking and standing but simply to make them more aware of their bodies, movement and posture and if need be, modify them for characterisation purposes.
1. Place a chair at the front of the room. Invite a volunteer out of the room for a few seconds so you can give him/her instructions. Tell your volunteer that s/he should enter the room and simply stand in front of the chair not saying a word. Let him/her do this for a maximum of 30 seconds. Thank the volunteer and then take a second person out of the room and instruct him/her to go back in and guard the chair, ie. act as though s/he is protecting it from the others. Again, no speech is necessary. Warn against overacting. Let this go on for about 30 seconds.
2. Follow this up with a discussion about the differences between the two: what usually transpires is that the first person looked uncomfortable and self-conscious, probably fidgeting, shuffling feet or standing with hands in pockets. In other words, there was no purpose for him/her to be standing there. The second person clearly had a purpose or task, even though it might not have been immediately obvious to the audience. Explain to the group that even when they are not at the centre of the action, perhaps standing in the background saying nothing, they still need to maintain energy, concentration and motivation ie. have a clear purpose in mind. Why are they there? Are they watching and listening to what is going on? Should they be reacting? Interestingly, inexperienced actors don’t feel comfortable standing with their arms by their sides. They tend to play with their hands or put them in their pockets, which can be distracting for the audience.
3. Now explain to the group that you are going to concentrate on movement. Explain that when people walk, they tend to lead with a particular part of their body, e.g their knees or chest. This can be quite a revelation to some! Line them up at one end of the room and ask each learner to walk the length of the space as naturally as possible. The objective for you and them is to ascertain which part of their body they lead with. It is not always obvious but should be for most. Once you have established where each learner walks from, ask them to mill around the space at normal speed. After 30 seconds, ask them to speed up. Then after another 30 seconds, they revert to normal speed. Now as they are moving at normal speed, ask them to exaggerate the movement of the part of the body they lead with ie. if they walk from their knees, they imagine a piece of string is attached to the knees and is pulling them along. Experiment by slowing and speeding up the pace.
4. Now in turn, call out various parts of the body which the learners must walk from. Remind them that they should imagine a piece of string is attached to the body part called out and they are being pulled along by it. Examples are: chest; right leg; both knees; left shoulder; both hips; nose; forehead. Students should exaggerate the walk. Now go through this sequence again but they should not exaggerate. They should begin to realise that they are developing different ways of walking that might give them ideas for their own characters.
5. As a physical release, end with a game of Silly Walk Tag. The person who is the chaser must create an unusual way of walking which everyone else copies. When someone is caught, s/he creates a completely different and bizarre way of walking for everyone to copy.
